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Amidst last year’s presidential election, Silicon Valley was publicly at odds with Peter Thiel’s support for Donald Trump. But that wasn’t enough to convince people like Y Combinator’s president Sam Altman to stop working with Thiel. Now, in what has to be one of the stealthiest announcements ever, the partnership between Y Combinator and Thiel…
A few months ago, physicists observed a new subatomic particle—essentially an awkwardly-named, crazy cousin of the proton. Its mere existence has energized teams of particle physicists to dream up new ways about how matter forms, arranges itself, and exists. Now, a pair of new research papers using different theoretical methods have independently unearthed another, crazier…
Saying the technology more closely resembles a “spying device” than a toy, Germany regulators have banned the sale of smartwatches designed for kids, urging the parents who were dumb enough to buy them in the first place to destroy them. Last month, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) warned that smartwatches marketed to kids were a…
Apple’s Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Denise Young Smith, is leaving the company at the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. Earlier this month, Cornell Tech announced Young Smith would be joining the faculty as an executive-in-residence in January. Young Smith is an Apple veteran who has been with the company since 1997, most…
Originally slated for a December release, it seems we’re going to be waiting a little longer for Apple’s $350 HomePod smart speaker now that its debut has been delayed until sometime in “early 2018.” In a statement Apple made to The Verge, the company said “We can’t wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple’s breakthrough…
Do you remember the big changeover to digital TV a few years ago that made traditional antennas obsolete? Well, the FCC approved a new technology on Thursday that could lead to a fresh round of obsolete devices and turn broadcast television into a data-collecting advertising machine. https://gizmodo.com/tv-maker-vizio-to-pay-out-millions-after-secretly-colle-1792056140 Among the many decisions made by the FCC…
Yesterday, the National Science Foundation announced that they’ll keep the storied Arecibo telescope running in the wake of the Hurricane Maria damage. The NSF concluded that the best way forward was to collaborate with “new stakeholders” who will both use and maintain the facility, according to the Record of Decision. There could be some potential…
Congratulations! You’ve got yourself a shiny new smartphone, you’ve worked your way through the initial setup and login process, and you’re ready to start using it in earnest. Before you start Snapchatting and WhatsApping though, check out some of the default settings Android and iOS apply for you—because they might not be exactly what you…
Before the Switch, before the 3DS, and even before the Game Boy, Nintendo had the Game & Watch: a series of handheld video games that were primitive by today’s standards, but mind-blowing to ‘80s kids. And they made such an impression on computer scientist Thomas Tilley that he recently created a gigantic version of the toy…
Okay, look. I’m not the first person to say this, and I certainly won’t be the last. But iOS 11 is bad. The new operating system has turned my phone into a bug-infested carcass of its former self, and the frustration of trying to use it sometimes makes me want to die, too. Plenty of…
One nice thing about teddy bears is that if your dog tears the head off of your child’s favorite one, you can just sew it back on. But you don’t proclaim your achievement a “wild success”—rather, you say, “here, I have fixed your lifeless play-thing.” Yet here comes Sergio Canavero, the controversial Italian doctor who…
Elon Musk rolled up to a Tesla press event tonight in an electric semi truck, unveiling his latest project to the world. The semi has been hotly anticipated since Musk first hinted at it last summer, and he’s been hyping it up on Twitter this week, promising that the reveal would “blow your mind clear…
Although mirrors have been around for thousands of years, a German chemist named Justus von Liebig made a breakthrough in 1835 that would make the modern manufacture of them possible. Add some sugar to ammoniated silver nitrate, pour it onto glass, and blammo: you’ve got yourself a mirror. It’s slightly more complicated than that, if…
On Thursday, the current FCC commission continued its campaign to loosen protections for consumers while doing the bidding of major corporations. The five-person commission voted on numerous items today, and there’s not a whole lot of good news. https://gizmodo.com/comcast-and-verizon-want-ajit-pais-fcc-to-block-states-1820145686 Anyone watching the mind-numbing arguments for each item on the FCC commissions agenda today could easily…
Body cameras have been seen as an elegant solution to the complex problem of police brutality, but a new survey of 75 police departments across the US found that the policies governing them have, as a whole, failed to foster transparency, protect privacy, or defend civil rights. “Police Body Worn Cameras: A Policy Scorecard,” a…
As personal goal that many interpreted as a trial balloon for a presidential campaign, Mark Zuckerberg has spent the last year traveling to all 50 states. He’s done now, and he’s posting about it. The Facebook founder sure learned a lot from his covertly-arranged jaunt into the lives of others. A (heavily-edited) transcript of Zuckerberg’s…
10 minutes ago, I was cautiously optimistic that one day we’d live and work side-by-side with robots in perfect harmony. Then Boston Dynamics posted a video of its ATLAS humanoid robot performing incredible jumps and backflips, and now I’m ready to go find a cave somewhere and hide. We haven’t seen much of ATLAS since…
A planet whole solar system is going to destroy the Earth during September October, uh, any time now, if the usual doomsday conspiracy people are to be believed. And if you’re hoping to survive this calamity, you should probably know what’s going on. A few months ago, I wrote that you should stop wasting my…
On Thursday, New York City voted to criminalize revenge porn. That means the nonconsensual dissemination of intimate photos and videos online is now a misdemeanor offense in the city and is punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail. The legislation was introduced last year by Council Members Rory I. Lancman…
An alliance of more than 50 civil liberties groups and more than 50 individual AI experts sent dual letters to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday, calling for the end of a plan to screen immigrants with predictive “extreme vetting” software. In a separate petition also launched today, several groups specifically urged IBM not…
